Finding a Safe Environment for Your Baby as a Homeless Birth Mother
Finding yourself unexpectedly pregnant can be a jarring experience. It is totally understandable that you may be unsure about what to do next. However, dealing with the emotional and physical effects of a pregnancy while homeless is endlessly difficult. Adoption is a wonderful choice when you are unable to provide the child with the quality of life that it deserves. As a birth mother considering adoption, there are many resources available to you.
Adoption Choices of Colorado is happy to help you consider your options, provide support and counseling, and to be a place where you and your baby can be assured that you are safe.
Finding a Home
Unfortunately, many people in the United States are suffering from homelessness. However, as a pregnant woman, it is unsafe to not have a stable housing environment. You need to be able to guarantee safety for the baby you’re carrying.
Fortunately, Adoption Choices of Colorado is happy to help you apply for affordable housing should your situation require it. We are also happy to pay your rent during the timespan of your pregnancy, and immediately following your delivery. We want to lift the burden of finding a home for you for the time being. You should be able to carry your baby to term in a place where you both are going to feel safe and comfortable. That is doing the best that you can for your child. Assistance like this allows you to have a safe environment for your baby, which leads to a healthier pregnancy.
Financial Planning
If you are experiencing homelessness, there is a predisposition of financial struggle. That kind of limitation can make it really hard to have a healthy pregnancy. Finding the resources that would help you can be extremely tricky, and an uncertain living situation can certainly limit you. Fortunately, Adoption Choices of Colorado does not only help with rent and living situations. They are also happy to help you with food, phone bills, utilities, and other sundries. We understand how challenging it is to be pregnant, and to be potentially searching for work and a safe environment for your baby.
We are also happy to assist you with doctors appointments. One of the first steps to a healthy pregnancy is ensuring that you have proper prenatal care. Without the proper screenings and check-ups, there can potentially be medical problems that could become dangerous for both you and the baby. We are happy to organize your prenatal appointments, as well as escort you to any hospital visits that may be deemed necessary. They can also help you apply for food stamps, drive you to your doctors appointments, and help you apply for Medicaid. Medical expenses that are not covered by the state or by insurance are covered by the adoptive family. If you are experiencing homelessness, these kinds of initiatives could be a godsend.
Looking Towards the Future
While your pregnancy may come to an end when your baby is born, it doesn’t mean that your adoption journey does. Returning to your home post birth and delivery can be a very emotional time. This is natural and to be expected. We offer free counseling for such a time as this — as well as throughout the entire process. If he is interested, your child’s birth father can also meet with a counselor if he needs emotional support.
From pregnancy to the aftermath of the adoption, we have trained professionals who can help you take care of your mental health. To place a child in an adoptive home can often be extremely heartbreaking. With the added pressure of experiencing homelessness, mental health and morale need to be maintained. We will never belittle or underestimate the experiences that you’ve had, and we would love to offer our understanding and support in a professional capacity.
Education and Career
With some financial strain taken off your shoulders, that opens the door for you to consider some possibilities for your future. A safe roof over your head and the bills being paid allows you the time and energy to look towards making that situation permanent. Now you can pursue what’s necessary to further all aspects of your life. We are happy to help you apply to different areas of education or to help you apply to a new job. We anticipate how challenging an unplanned pregnancy can be, so we want to ensure that you have aid in all areas of your life, and that you will be safe and stable in the aftermath of your child’s placement.
However, an academic education isn’t the only thing you may potentially be gaining. The emotional experience of placing a child for adoption is an education unto itself. There are many birth mothers who have told their stories of grief, and coping with placing a child for adoption. They are amazing resources and they understand in ways only those who’ve been where you are can. Adoption Choices is happy to recommend some excellent reading material, for birth mothers written by birth mothers.
Here to Help
It can be easy to doubt yourself if you are a homeless person who is experiencing an unplanned pregnancy. There is so much that you are unclear about in regards to your own life, let alone the life of a child. If you make the decision to place your child for adoption because you feel like you cannot provide it with the life it deserves, that doesn’t mean you cannot keep it safe and healthy during the pregnancy. If your baby is safely placed into a home with a loving adoptive family then you have done the best you can for your child.
Choosing adoption does not mean the end of a relationship with your baby, but it does mean that your child will be safe and loved. Hopefully, you will also be able to move into a situation where you can say the same about yourself.
If you are facing an unplanned pregnancy and want to learn more about your adoption options, contact Adoption Choices of Colorado by email, phone, or text: Email Us, Call us: 720-371-1099, Call or Text us: 303-670-4673 (HOPE). If you are hoping to adopt, please contact us here.
Meet the Author: Katherine Burns is a journalism student at Loyola University Maryland with plans to pursue a career in the news and magazine industries. With over three years of experience writing for the Greyhound Newspaper at Loyola, Katherine specializes in Op-eds. However, she has recently branched out to cover a variety of topics, including education and sports journalism. She also has ample experience with travel blogging.
Katherine has conducted a variety of interviews in her time at Loyola and has displayed her stories through differing forms of media. In addition to her studies at Loyola, Katherine spent the fall of 2019 studying communications at the American University of Paris.To learn more about Katherine, be sure to check her out on social media.
Stephanie joined the Adoption Choices family in 2014 as the Child Placement Supervisor. Her love for adoption began in first grade when she made friends with twins adopted from Vietnam. Her heart grew strong over the years for adopted children and ultimately led her to graduate school where she continued her focus to her dream of working in the adoption field. Stephanie earned a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Denver in 2001. Over the past 15 years, Stephanie has worked as a pregnancy counselor and as an adoptive parent counselor for foster care, international adoption and domestic adoption, writing hundreds of home studies for families, and helping build their forever families. Stephanie is married and has three boys ages 12, 9, and 5. Together with her family she enjoys riding bike, playing games, watching her three sons compete in their various sporting and musical activities and go on vacations.
Christy Ikeler, is our Executive Director and Birth Parent Director. Christy has been with Adoption Choices Team for 18 years, since opening the doors in 2002! Christy has a true passion for what she does and her true love is working with and helping each birth parent. Whether she is up all night on the phone talking with them, taking them to doctors appointments, out for their favorite treat, providing counseling or at the hospital during labor and delivery, Christy is very involved every step of the way. She has a contagious laugh and a spunky personality that our birth moms all can bond with and relate to. As an adoptive parent herself, adoption holds a very special place in her heart and she can relate on every level with both birth parents and adoptive parents. In her free time Christy loves spending time with her daughter, gardening, baking and taking vacations with her family. Christy is an excellent leader for our team at Adoption Choices and is truly one of a kind!! As Executive Director, Christy spends time with the staff, birth parents and adoptive families in order to ensure that the agency is running smoothly. She has placed a huge emphasis on community outreach and programs for birth parents. Christy loves the opportunity to lead the agency into a brighter future.
Ms. Mackenzie has built a successful counseling career over the past 20 years, supporting mothers and families, people of all ages and genders, students, community professionals and fellow clinicians. Liv values a diverse professional focus, including the entrepreneurial life of a sole proprietor, the evaluative process of certifying foster/adoptive homes, the insightful and mindful one-on-one one work with enthusiastic clients, and serving as an advocate for underserved populations. Liv is a Licensed Professional Counselor and holds a BA in Pre-Law and Economics from American University, an MA in Counseling from Adams University and a certificate in Human Resource Management from Villanova University. Away from work you will find Liv spending time in nature, biking to the farmer’s market and adventuring with her family.
Catherine A. Madsen, joined the Adoption Choices family as legal counsel in 2013. Catherine is responsible for providing legal guidance to the Agency, training and updating staff on developments in adoption law and legislation, and program development. Catherine
Virginia Frank is an adoption attorney accredited since 1991 with the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys. Ms. Frank is a leader in the field of private adoption and has completed over 4,000 adoptions in her career. Ms. Frank has a law degree from Oklahoma City University and a BA in both Political Science and Communications from the University of Oklahoma.
Cassidie has been with Adoption Choices since 2015, she has her bachelors in Interdisciplinary Affairs with concentrations in both Sociology and Business Management. Cassidie has additional training in Victim Advocacy, foster care and has been working in women’s services for over 10 years. Cassidie has always had a heart for adoption and it was her career dream to work in adoption. She started off doing volunteer work for advocacy programs, adoption organizations and worked in High Risk Maternal Fetal Medicine through the University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Colorado. Cassidie is also blessed to have personally experienced an adoption of her own in 2012, completing her family of five! Cassidie loves what she does as a case worker from initial phone calls, meetings, doctor appointments, interaction with the adoptive families to delivery and counseling. Cassidie has a passion for those in need and strives to help make a difference in the lives of the people she meets. She is a firm believer in being kind, compassionate and open minded in all situations. “Unless you’ve walked in their shoes, there’s no place for judgment. A kind word or compliment can go a long way!” The bittersweet moments in adoption reminds Cassidie each and every time, why she loves what she does!